I'm not liking the farming mechanic. It seemed like a good idea on paper but in practice, it's just tedious and exploitive. Here's how I'd like to see it work:

Some planets would have a Arable land tile including all starting planets. Building on these tiles produces food.

The tech tree would have a path for players who want to get the most out of those resources to get a lot of food. The arable land resource be destructable -- you can destroy it (like you can any resource btw) to put something else there. This would make food take its rightful place as an important strategic resource rather than one that is simply produced by min/maxing.

Can't say I like that idea. Food isn't a strategic resource that is super rare... And making it so, means even more problems with map balancing.

I'd argue for a background mechanic for food. Where a planet simply produces x food based on class. No buildings at all. Or with this foundation, now you can have special farmable resources that create flat food quantities.

You're now free to build cities from your global good supply that's automatically being harvested .I suspect that helps with the AI since there is nothing to min max.

Sorry Gauntlet, but I don't like your approach very much. That would lead to a more or less inevitable food income for that you cannot and don't have to do anything, that's not what I want to see in a strategy game. I want to work for food, possibly sacrificing something else.

Frogboy's suggestions sounds better, but still doesn't feell right. I have to think a bit about that ...

I like the certain amt grown depending on planet class.
To add a twist I would want tech added that can be researched if ...
These techs, buildings and resources would boost the base amt of food produced.
Techs can allow one to build on a tile.
Buildings, resources and ideology can give % increases.

I really like the idea! Especially with the separate tech tree witch would also bring much more tactic in the game. Very important for me is the question how the AI can handle this. Would it easier to give the AI the skill to handle this mechanic than the current mechanic?

my thoughts are probably more complex than what you will be wanting to implement.

One of the things that really turns me off of this game is the strategic resources and how they are pure and total luck. If I need Monsantium, and there is no monsantium on any of the planets that I can even invade (yes I've had this happen) then guess what... a whole branch of the game is pointless.

So my suggestion. Make every strategic resource build-able projects. Rather than having it be completely and totally random, tie the resources to tech advancement and planet type. Make them expensive and a cap of 2 or 3 per planet...

But as to the overall food... I agree with Gauntlet. Food, Money, and Production and Moral should be the basic always generated things each planet has by default.

Building a factory increases your productionBuilding a Farm increases your foodBuilding too many factories should decrease your food (in theory) just like having too many people stresses your morale.

Food is already set up as a global currency. just make it more... heck the Iconians have bio-ships... make a biofabricator or something that does both food and production.

Or the frogs have hot springs that are morale and food... etc etc....

The biggest issue that food has is that UNLIKE Wealth and production which are increased using the space harvested resources... Food can only be improved using the much much more rare resources.

Gauntlet03 makes a fair point: it's a bit strange that you can have a population on a planet but that population can't make any food. Should there be a certain level of food production that's automatic? I think the idea of food production being tied to Planet Class makes sense (further tied to planetary types and traits).

Obviously, if you want to grow your population - and obviously increase production - that's the reason for farms etc.

One little mechanic you might like - or might like not - to consider if you're talking about food as a resource:

Food is now a global resource - you can have Food Planet 1 and as long as that's making enough chow, you can food your 8 planet empire.

Except if the Drengin destroy the ships that are transporting it...

I appreciate this might be difficult to implement (should a player have to build Food Ships? Have to build Escorts? Hit Points? etc) but it's another path to conquest: starve Planet 5 out by killing the Food Ships from Planet 2 and wait for the white flag. A much more aggressive version of Embargo, which just stops trading with other civilizations. It means you don't need to invade - or at least buys time to get ready to invade and obviously weakens Planet 5's defence.

Ultimately, I honestly don't see food being something people ship to a planet... I think planets grow that food locally no matter what. It's not a difficult enough problem to grow food in contained environments or engineer the organism for the environment.

Trade space on those freighters will be reserved for rarer resources and premade goods.

Of course... My race just eats people when times get tough... So I'm biased.